2013: The year in pictures

The Church of Rome, they say, moves slowly. Yet in 11 months it has been
hurtling at breakneck speed towards transformation. Last February, Pope
Benedict XVI, 85, resigned. With his move (dictated by God, he said)
Benedict shocked his flock: the last papal resignation was 600 years ago.
But Benedict’s capacity to surprise was as nothing compared to his
successor’s.Jorge
Mario Bergoglio, the Argentinian cardinal who took the name Francis,
carried his own case to the humble digs he preferred to the Vatican’s papal
suite, rang an unwed mother to offer his support, hugged a man with a
disfiguring skin disease and washed the feet of prisoners. Already the
Church feels different; over the next few years it will change even more and
finally distance itself from charges of autocracy, secrecy and scandal.